Undocumented people make up an estimated 70% of labor on Wisconsin dairy farms. Without them, the dairy industry would collapse.
John Rosenow is a dairy farmer in Buffalo County, in western Wisconsin. He began hiring undocumented labor in the 1990s, as the number of farms in the region dwindled but the number of cows remained the same.
Rosenow says that former president Donald Trump’s promise for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would be destructive for the region’s economy and culture, beyond just dairy farms.
“Ashley Furniture would have to shut down [...] and Pilgrim’s Pride would have to shut down,” Rosenow says, referring to other large employers of immigrant labor in his region. “The other part is that a lot of the kids in school are citizens, so if you deport their parents and leave the kids here who are 10 years old or 8 years old, how are they going to survive?”
However, Rosenow also notes he has not seen differences in immigration enforcement on farms in his area regardless if a Democrat or Republican is in office, including Trump. He says people he knows who depend on undocumented labor often believe that while Trump promises to deport all undocumented immigrants, he does not mean immigrants in their community.
“What I’ve been told by those people is that he doesn’t really mean that,” Rosenow says.
Listen to Lake Effect’s special episode on immigration in Wisconsin, covering the history of Latino immigration to the state, how immigration court works, and how immigrant rights can be affirmed in Wisconsin.
